It's all too easy to make fun of someone like Len Gibbs, he's simply out of his depth. Yet that's what happened yesterday when the Western Mail ran this story about the claim he made on his website that:

“The recently published international PERA report found that for the second time running, of 64 wealthy nations, Welsh children came bottom for reading, maths and science.”

The real facts about the PISA report are in the article. But right at the bottom of it we can see Rachel Banner's response on behalf of True Wales. Her actual words were:

Rachel Banner said: “The comments made by Len Gibbs were not made on behalf of True Wales.”

She was obviously trying to distance herself from Len Gibbs, and for prefectly understandable reasons, but I don't know who she thought she was trying to fool. She was telling a barefaced lie, for True Wales had in fact made exactly the same claim on its own website a few weeks ago:

True Wales awards the Welsh Assembly and the Welsh Assembly Government a second wooden spoon for failing our children. In the latest report on educational standards in sixty-four wealthy nations, the children of Wales have, for the second time in a row, come bottom of the league for reading, science and mathematics.

And just in case Rachel Banner or anyone else in True Wales has thoughts about trying to hide the evidence, she shouldn't bother. An archive copy of it is here, and this is a screenshot from the page:

It's amazing and rather pathetic to see Rachel Banner put the knife into her former colleague in this way, because the hapless Len Gibbs was simply repeating a lie that True Wales had already told. But why go to so much trouble? What's the point of trying to salvage your own credibility by distancing yourself from one lie when there are so many other lies on the True Wales website?

5
comments:

Anonymous
said...

well spotted Syniadau - the no campaign is clearly disintergrating before our eyes!!! as soon as they have come under under any serious 'scrutiny' they have cracked! blogs like this are playing a critical role in exposing their lies and their barely concealed contempt for the welsh people!

I dunno - Rachel Banner would no doubt argue that it's an error of omission - they meaant to say bottom in the UK. But the sentence is deliberately misleading.

And this ... "Wales is now so poor that we qualify to ask the EU for funding support..." Has she forgotten the kerfuffle with Alun Michael and the Objective One match funding which led to his resignation. Surely not...

I tend to agree with you, Hendre. The claim about Wales being last of 64 is not so out of line with the sort of lies True Wales are famous for. I had thought about mentioning it at the time (in fact I started to write something) but wondered what the point of singling out just one lie would be. You yourself have mentioned another that was just as bad. As it happens, Martin Shipton has written a better version of what I'd have done, because he's gone through the detail of where Wales actually is in the tables.

My point is that Rachel Banner said Len Gibbs' comment was not made on behalf of True Wales. I've shown that someone speaking on behalf of True Wales had told exactly the same lie in almost exactly the same words. She tried to protect herself by dumping on Len Gibbs. That deception—or, as it has failed, attempt at deception—is much more serious.

I'm not surprised by anything True Wales/Real True Wales/People's Democratic True Wales/Democratic People's Gwent does anymore. We're fortunate that Wales is ignored by the UK's media because the no campaign is dragging this referendum into laughing stock territory.

I think it's a symptom of the self-loathing "if it's Welsh it must be crap" attitude. Wales has to be bottom of every ladder by virtue of being Wales. Another mistruth for example being that Wales qualifies for EU funding. "West Wales and the Valleys" does (and probably won't post 2013). "East Wales" performs some way above the EU27 average economically (106-110% IIRC). Wales itself is pushing 90% overall.

Post a Comment

Much of what will appear on this blog will also appear in the Syniadau Forums, but the emphasis on this blog is slightly different. The forums are focused more on the structures and institutions that Wales will need to develop in order to become a successful independent nation, arranged on a subject by subject basis, but the blog will have more of an emphasis on day to day political news and developments.

People are welcome to reply or leave comments either here or on the Syniadau Forums. If anyone wants to initiate a new subject they are very welcome to do so there.